ALISTER E. McGRATH is currently Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford; he was previously Professor of Theology and Education at King's College, London. He is regarded as one of the world's leading Protestant theologians and is the author of some of the world's most widely used theological textbooks, including the bestselling The Christian Theology Reader (5th edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2016), Christianity (Wiley Blackwell, 2015), and Science and Religion (Wiley Blackwell, 2010). He is in constant demand as a speaker at conferences throughout the world.

List of Illustrations xxi

Preface xxiii

To the Student: How to Use This Book xxvii

To the Teacher: How to Use This Book xxix

The Structure of the Book: The Fifth and Sixth Editions Compared xxxiii

Video and Audio Resources xxxv

Part I Landmarks: Periods, Themes, and Personalities of Christian Theology 1

Introduction 3

1 The Patristic Period, c.100-c.700 5

The Early Centers of Theological Activity 5

An Overview of the Patristic Period 7

A clarification of terms 8

The theological agenda of the period 8

Key Theologians 10

Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165) 10

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.202) 10

Tertullian (c.160-c.220) 10

Origen (c.185-c.254) 10

Cyprian of Carthage (died 258) 11

Athanasius (c.293-373) 11

The Cappadocian fathers 11

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) 11

Key Theological Debates and Developments 12

The extent of the New Testament canon 12

The role of tradition: the Gnostic controversies 13

The fixing of the ecumenical creeds 14

The two natures of Jesus Christ: the Arian controversy 15

The doctrine of the Trinity 17

The doctrine of the church: the Donatist controversy 18

The doctrine of grace: the Pelagian controversy 18

Key Names, Words, and Phrases 19

Questions for Chapter 1 19

2 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, c.700-c.1500 21

On Defining the "Middle Ages" 22

Theological Landmarks in Western Europe 24

The rise of medieval schools of theology 24

The founding of the universities 25

A theological textbook: the Four Books of the Sentences 26

"Cathedrals of the Mind": scholasticism 26

The Italian Renaissance and the rise of humanism 26

Byzantine Theology: Major Themes 27

Key Theologians 29

John of Damascus (c.676-749) 29

Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022) 30

Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033-1109) 30

Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-74) 31

Duns Scotus (c.1266-1308) 32

William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) 32

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) 33

Key Theological Debates and Developments 34

The consolidation of the patristic heritage 34

The exploration of the role of reason in theology 34

Scholasticism: the development of theological systems 35

The development of sacramental theology 35

The development of the theology of grace 35

The role of Mary in the scheme of salvation 36

The Renaissance: returning to the original sources of theology 36

Key Names, Words, and Phrases 37

Questions for Chapter 2 37

3 The Age of Reformation, c.1500-c.1750 38

The Main Movements of the Age of Reformation 38

The German Reformation: Lutheranism 39

The Swiss Reformation: the Reformed church 40

The radical Reformation: Anabaptism 41

The English Reformation: Anglicanism 42

The Catholic Reformation 42

The Second Reformation: confessionalization 43

Post-Reformation Movements 43

The consolidation of Catholicism 44

Puritanism 44

Pietism 45

The Copernican and Galilean Controversies 46

Key Theologians 47

Martin Luther (1483-1546) 47

Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) 48

John Calvin (1509-64) 48

Teresa of Avilà (1515-82) 48

Theodore Beza (1519-1605) 49

Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) 49

Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) 49

Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) 49

Key Theological Debates and Developments 49

The sources of theology 50

The doctrine of grace 50

The doctrine of the sacraments 51

The doctrine of the church 51

Developments in Theological Literature 51

Catechisms 52

Confessions of faith 52

Works of systematic theology 53

Key Names, Words, and Phrases 55

Questions for Chapter 3 56

4 The Modern Period, c.1750 to the Present 57

Theology and Cultural Developments in the West 57

The wars of religion and disinterest in religion 58

The rise of the Enlightenment 58

The Enlightenment critique of Christian theology: some case studies 59

Marxism: an intellectual rival to Christianity 61

Darwinism: a new theory of human origins 62

The First World War: a theology of crisis 62

Postmodernism: beyond the modern theological agenda 63

Globalization: world Christianity and world religions 65

Key Theologians 67

F. D. E. Schleiermacher (1768-1834) 67

John Henry Newman (1801-90) 67

Karl Barth (1886-1968) 68

Paul Tillich (1886-1965) 68

Karl Rahner (1904-84) 68

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) 69

Jürgen Moltmann (born 1926) 69

Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014) 69

Major Modern Theological Movements 70

Liberal Protestantism 70

Modernism 71

Neo-orthodoxy 72

Liberation theologies 74

Feminism 75

Black and "womanist" theology 77

Postliberalism 78

Radical orthodoxy 79

Key Names, Words, and Phrases 80

Questions for Chapter 4 80

Part II Sources and Methods 81

5 Getting Started: Preliminaries 83

What is Faith? 83

Defining Theology 85

A working definition of theology 85

The historical development of the idea of theology 86

The development of theology as an academic discipline 87

The Architecture of Theology 89

Biblical studies 89

Systematic theology 89

Philosophical theology 90

Historical theology 91

Practical, or pastoral, theology 92

Spirituality, or mystical theology 93

Apologetics 94

The Question of Prolegomena 94

Commitment and Neutrality in Theology 95

Orthodoxy and Heresy 97

Historical aspects 97

Theological aspects 98

The Theology of the Relationship Between Christianity and Secular Culture 99

Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165) 99

Tertullian (c.160-c.220) 100

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) 100

The twentieth century: H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) 102

Questions for Chapter 5 103

6 The Sources of Theology 104

Scripture 104

The Old Testament 105

The New Testament 105

Other works: deutero-canonical and apocryphal writings 107

The relationship between the Old and New Testaments 109

The canon of Scripture: historical and theological issues 111

The Word of God 112

Narrative theology 113

Methods of interpretation of Scripture 115

Theories of the inspiration of Scripture 120

Tradition 122

A single-source theory of tradition 125

A dual-source theory of tradition 125

The total rejection of tradition 126

Theology and worship: the importance of liturgical tradition 126

Reason 127

Reason and revelation: three models 127

Enlightenment rationalism 129

Criticisms of Enlightenment rationalism 130

Religious Experience 130

Experience as the basis of Christian theology 131

Theology connects with human experience 132

Theology as the interpreter of human experience 132

God as a misinterpretation of human experience 133

Questions for Chapter 6 134

7 Knowledge of God: Natural and Revealed 135

The Idea of Revelation 136

Models of Revelation 137

Revelation as doctrine 137

Revelation as presence 138

Revelation as experience 139

Revelation as history 140

Natural Theology: Its Scope and Limits 141

Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-74) on natural theology 142

John Calvin (1509-64) on natural theology 143

The Renaissance: God's two books 144

Eastern Orthodoxy on natural theology 145

The Barth-Brunner debate (1934) 146

Approaches to Discerning God in Nature 147

Human reason 147

The ordering of the world 147

The beauty of the world 148

The Natural Sciences and Christian Theology: Models of Interaction 148

Warfare: the "conflict" thesis 149

Isolation: the "non-overlapping" thesis 150

Enrichment: the complementarity thesis 150

Questions for Chapter 7 151

8 Philosophy and Theology: Dialogue and Debate 152

Philosophy and Theology: The Notion of the "Handmaid" 153

Can God's Existence Be Proved? Four Approaches 155

The ontological argument of Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033-1109) 156

The "Five Ways" of Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-74) 158

The kalam argument 160

A classic argument from design: William Paley (1743-1805) 161

The Nature of Theological Language 163

Does theological language refer to anything? 164

Apophatic and kataphatic approaches 164

Questions for Chapter 8 171

Part III Christian Theology 173

9 The Doctrine of God 175

Is God Male? 175

A Personal God 177

Defining "person" 178

Dialogical personalism: Martin Buber (1878-1965) 179

Can God Suffer? 181

The classical view: the impassibility of God 182

The twentieth century: a paradigm shift? 183

A suffering God: Jürgen Moltmann (born 1926) 184

The death of God? 185

The Omnipotence of God 187

Defining omnipotence 187

The two powers of God 188

The notion of divine self-limitation 189

God's Action in the World 190

"Special" and "general" divine action 190

Deism: God acts through the laws of nature 191

Thomism: God acts through secondary causes 192

Process theology: God acts through persuasion 193

God as Creator 194

Development of the doctrine of...